- rockyhonda Dec 07, 2020 at 03:51: PM
Implementing Best Practices from Other Industries to Improve an Ophthalmic Technician Workforce
Ophthalmic clinics continue to be plagued with attracting and retaining the best ophthalmic technicians (techs). As the baby boomer generation's healthcare needs become more demanding due to age, an unstable workforce will not keep up with patient needs. Administrators need to look at other industries outside of health care to identify and implement best practice techniques towards improving their workforce. This article will identify best practices from successful organizations, and the effects of implementing these best practices would benefit an ophthalmic technician workforce.
Other Industries Successful in Employee Retention
Small to large organizations are now emphasizing their work culture and retention programs more than ever before. The time and cost are financially unfeasible to interview, train, and integrate new employees, while customer satisfaction also takes a hit. A recent report by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) calculated poor organization culture and management costs as much as $223 billion over the past five years (Mirza, 2019). Companies like Southwest and Netflix have placed great emphasis on workforce culture.
Southwest
Southwest is known for having one of the best workplace cultures of all airlines. The average employee tenure is 11.5 years, with turnover hovering around 2.5 percent (Spiegelberg, 2017). Southwest promotes three key elements for engaging and creating a positive culture (Spiegelberg, 2017):
1. Clear about vision and value.
2. Having the right senior leaders in place.
3. Empowerment by assuring employee's voices are heard, involvement, and inclusion.
Southwest employed a strong onboarding process for all employees, and their core values are exemplified at all levels and continuously reinforced (Spiegelberg, 2017). To promote their values, Southwest has a department called "Culture Services," whose mission is to retrain focus on company values, the employees, and "low cost" (Robertson, 2018). Creating core values and exemplifying them through leadership has proven vital for Southwest.
Netflix
Netflix has moved away from many industry-standard policies to promote employee satisfaction, high performance, and employee decision-making and innovation. One of Netflix's benefits package's unique components is an unlimited vacation in place of paid time off (PTO). Netflix has found that providing greater autonomy to employees has resulted in a more responsible culture (Bradberry, n.d.). Netflix's leadership and management team are tasked with utilizing the unlimited vacation policy, being transparent and open of their time off, and encouraging their staff to take time off (Abadi, 2018). Netflix's unlimited vacation has proven highly effective in providing employees with much-needed rest, no stress of micromanaged time off hours, and flexibility to make time off decisions based on the employee's needs.
Implementing Best Practices into an Ophthalmic Technician Workforce
Ophthalmic clinics have yet to follow in the footsteps of Southwest and Netflix, placing emphasis on employees and breaking past traditional workforce policies. Implementing Netflix's unlimited vacation would provide technicians the time-off the desired time-off needed to prevent burnout, attend to self-needs, and create a work-life balance. A report on nursing engagement found that 41% of nurses reported feelings of burnout, which led to being unengaged (Admin, 2020). Most ophthalmic clinics are open Monday thru Friday with demanding hours and productivity on the ophthalmic technicians. Burnout can become a significant factor when administrators run a lean tech group to keep labor expenses down. An unlimited vacation would require some constraints on how many employees could be off. However, the payoff would be far more advantageous with a refreshed tech workforce and higher productivity. An unlimited vacation benefit would also remove the constraints of micromanaging vacation hours and paying out paid time off when employees leave the company.
Incorporating core values and exemplifying them through actions as Southwest has would promote a more employee-centric tech workforce. Implementing and emphasizing core values would improve overall interactions between tech and patient, promoting higher patient satisfaction scores. The utilization of core values has been evident in Southwest's ability to remain the highest passenger satisfaction scores among its competitors (Woodyard, 2020). Southwest's belief that happy employee equates to a happy passenger is easily transferable to a healthcare setting.
Conclusion
Ophthalmic administrators are struggling to retain or attract quality technicians. Ophthalmic practices have yet to learn from other industries outside of healthcare on innovations towards employee satisfaction. Taking best practices from Southwest or Netflix would be a massive paradigm shift within ophthalmology and could help administrators stabilize, retain, and attract their technician workforce.
References
Abadi, M. (2018, October 18). 'She just threatened me to take more vacation!' The story of a Netflix employee whose boss insisted he take 2 weeks off hold an importan lesson for any company. Business Insider: 'She just threatened me to take more vacation!' The story of a Netflix employee whose boss insisted he take 2 weeks off holds an important lesson for any company.
Admin. (2020, March 4). Nursing burnout: self-care in Healthcare. Nursing License Map: Nursing Burnout: Self-care in Healthcare.
Bradberry, T. (n.d.). Why everyone should have unlimited vacation days. Talent Smart: Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Tests, Training, Certification & Coaching - TalentSmart.
Mirza, B. (2019, September 25). Toxic workplace cultures hurt workers and company profits. SHRM: Toxic Workplace Cultures Hurt Workers and Company Profits
Robertson, K. (2018, May 29). Southwest Airlines reveals 5 cultural lessons. Human Synergistics: Culture lessons from Southwest Airlines on values, employees first, and more.
Spiegelberg, A. (2017, November 6). Southwest Airlines' managing director of culture, Cheryl Hughey, speaks about the elevation of workplace culture. Retrieved from Brunswick Group: The cloud nine culture
Woodyard, C. (2020, May 27). Before COVID-19 stopped the world, Southwest was voted best airline in this survey. USA Today: Southwest Airlines tops new J.D. Power customer satisfaction study
Ophthalmic clinics continue to be plagued with attracting and retaining the best ophthalmic technicians (techs). As the baby boomer generation's healthcare needs become more demanding due to age, an unstable workforce will not keep up with patient needs. Administrators need to look at other industries outside of health care to identify and implement best practice techniques towards improving their workforce. This article will identify best practices from successful organizations, and the effects of implementing these best practices would benefit an ophthalmic technician workforce.
Other Industries Successful in Employee Retention
Small to large organizations are now emphasizing their work culture and retention programs more than ever before. The time and cost are financially unfeasible to interview, train, and integrate new employees, while customer satisfaction also takes a hit. A recent report by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) calculated poor organization culture and management costs as much as $223 billion over the past five years (Mirza, 2019). Companies like Southwest and Netflix have placed great emphasis on workforce culture.
Southwest
Southwest is known for having one of the best workplace cultures of all airlines. The average employee tenure is 11.5 years, with turnover hovering around 2.5 percent (Spiegelberg, 2017). Southwest promotes three key elements for engaging and creating a positive culture (Spiegelberg, 2017):
1. Clear about vision and value.
2. Having the right senior leaders in place.
3. Empowerment by assuring employee's voices are heard, involvement, and inclusion.
Southwest employed a strong onboarding process for all employees, and their core values are exemplified at all levels and continuously reinforced (Spiegelberg, 2017). To promote their values, Southwest has a department called "Culture Services," whose mission is to retrain focus on company values, the employees, and "low cost" (Robertson, 2018). Creating core values and exemplifying them through leadership has proven vital for Southwest.
Netflix
Netflix has moved away from many industry-standard policies to promote employee satisfaction, high performance, and employee decision-making and innovation. One of Netflix's benefits package's unique components is an unlimited vacation in place of paid time off (PTO). Netflix has found that providing greater autonomy to employees has resulted in a more responsible culture (Bradberry, n.d.). Netflix's leadership and management team are tasked with utilizing the unlimited vacation policy, being transparent and open of their time off, and encouraging their staff to take time off (Abadi, 2018). Netflix's unlimited vacation has proven highly effective in providing employees with much-needed rest, no stress of micromanaged time off hours, and flexibility to make time off decisions based on the employee's needs.
Implementing Best Practices into an Ophthalmic Technician Workforce
Ophthalmic clinics have yet to follow in the footsteps of Southwest and Netflix, placing emphasis on employees and breaking past traditional workforce policies. Implementing Netflix's unlimited vacation would provide technicians the time-off the desired time-off needed to prevent burnout, attend to self-needs, and create a work-life balance. A report on nursing engagement found that 41% of nurses reported feelings of burnout, which led to being unengaged (Admin, 2020). Most ophthalmic clinics are open Monday thru Friday with demanding hours and productivity on the ophthalmic technicians. Burnout can become a significant factor when administrators run a lean tech group to keep labor expenses down. An unlimited vacation would require some constraints on how many employees could be off. However, the payoff would be far more advantageous with a refreshed tech workforce and higher productivity. An unlimited vacation benefit would also remove the constraints of micromanaging vacation hours and paying out paid time off when employees leave the company.
Incorporating core values and exemplifying them through actions as Southwest has would promote a more employee-centric tech workforce. Implementing and emphasizing core values would improve overall interactions between tech and patient, promoting higher patient satisfaction scores. The utilization of core values has been evident in Southwest's ability to remain the highest passenger satisfaction scores among its competitors (Woodyard, 2020). Southwest's belief that happy employee equates to a happy passenger is easily transferable to a healthcare setting.
Conclusion
Ophthalmic administrators are struggling to retain or attract quality technicians. Ophthalmic practices have yet to learn from other industries outside of healthcare on innovations towards employee satisfaction. Taking best practices from Southwest or Netflix would be a massive paradigm shift within ophthalmology and could help administrators stabilize, retain, and attract their technician workforce.
References
Abadi, M. (2018, October 18). 'She just threatened me to take more vacation!' The story of a Netflix employee whose boss insisted he take 2 weeks off hold an importan lesson for any company. Business Insider: 'She just threatened me to take more vacation!' The story of a Netflix employee whose boss insisted he take 2 weeks off holds an important lesson for any company.
Admin. (2020, March 4). Nursing burnout: self-care in Healthcare. Nursing License Map: Nursing Burnout: Self-care in Healthcare.
Bradberry, T. (n.d.). Why everyone should have unlimited vacation days. Talent Smart: Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Tests, Training, Certification & Coaching - TalentSmart.
Mirza, B. (2019, September 25). Toxic workplace cultures hurt workers and company profits. SHRM: Toxic Workplace Cultures Hurt Workers and Company Profits
Robertson, K. (2018, May 29). Southwest Airlines reveals 5 cultural lessons. Human Synergistics: Culture lessons from Southwest Airlines on values, employees first, and more.
Spiegelberg, A. (2017, November 6). Southwest Airlines' managing director of culture, Cheryl Hughey, speaks about the elevation of workplace culture. Retrieved from Brunswick Group: The cloud nine culture
Woodyard, C. (2020, May 27). Before COVID-19 stopped the world, Southwest was voted best airline in this survey. USA Today: Southwest Airlines tops new J.D. Power customer satisfaction study